Dunan von Auslese
Duke Dunan von Auslese is a nobleman and nephew to the queen of Liberl. The duke is first mentioned in the 4th issue of the Liberl News where it's announced that he's planning a vacation in Ruan and referred to during Estelle's and Joshua's first meeting with Jean, Ruan's guild manager, where he mentions policing the streets has been stepped up due to a member of the royal family coming to inspect the city. The Bright siblings end up meeting the duke that same day when they prepare to settle down for the day in a luxurious room in the nearby hotel only for the duke to walk in on them and demand them letting him have the room instead. When Dunan first introduces himself, neither Estelle nor Joshua believes he's really related to the Queen and both laugh at him, only for the duke's butler Phillip to step in and confirm his identity. Stating that his master is not the kind of person to ever change his mind once it's set on something and even offering money as compensation, he manages to convince Estelle and Joshua to relinquish the room to the duke, though the latter remains oblivious to his butler's part in the bracers' change of heart. Dunan meets Estelle once more while he's visiting the military checkpoint of Air-Letten where his actions mirror those of his first encounter with her. Having taken a liking to the building's view of the waterfall, Dunan insists on having the entire checkpoint for himself, including the mess hall and the sleeping quarters, resulting in all the other guests being forced out. Not sure how to deal with the demanding duke and the furious guests, the officer in charge, Chief Warrant Officer Hahn, puts in a request with the Guild to have a bracer deal with Dunan instead. With Joshua having his hands full calming down the angry guests, Estelle confronts the duke and she manages to make him leave by stating that the mess hall isn't sanitary enough for a nobleman and even claims there are cockroaches and maybe even monsters crawling around, causing Dunan to freak out and run back to Ruan in a hurry. Like many people of reknown, Dunan receives an invitation to the school festival at Jenis Royal Academy where he takes his time to look around before attending the play together with Phillip. While, like many people, he doesn't expect it to be any good, he ends up enjoying it nonetheless. Jill also credits the duke for being one of the people who gave very generously during the collection for the rebuilding of the orphanage. Dunan and Phillip cross paths with the bracers again after Estelle, Joshua and Kloe visit Mayor Dalmore's home in order to confront him with his involvement in the orphanage fire and robbery of the matron. When the three of them walk in, Dalmore's busy succesfully convincing the duke (with words and wine) to buy a vacation home and Dunan is all too eager to go along, despite the amount of money involved. When Estelle and Joshua request to speak with Dalmore he asks Dunan if he'll excuse him for a moment, but the curious duke says it's okay to continue the discussion here and now. Eventually, the mayor shows his true colors and unleashes too monsters to deal with the bracers. Upon seeing the two monstrocities, the cowardly duke promptly passes out and remains that way even after the monsters are dealt with and the mayor flees. After the events in Ruan, Duke Dunan returns to Grancel where he gets involved in the Intelligence Division's coup d'etat. After framing the Royal Guard for the attack on Central Factory, Colonel Richard has Queen Alicia put under house arrest and spreads the rumor that she's fallen ill, having Dunan (who's one of the Queen's heirs) act as her proxy. Tempted by Richard's promises to get Princess Klaudia out of the picture and force the Queen to put him on the throne, Dunan is all too happy to let the colonel do as he pleases without questioning the construction works taking place underneath the castle. Instead, he revels in his role as royal stand-in to spend the day eating, drinking and lazing about, leaving the governing to Colonel Richard and the few remaining officials. When Estelle and Joshua arrive in the royal city and go check on the situation at the castle, they're just in time to see the duke, who overslept, hurry out of the gates to attend the Martial Arts Competition at the Grand Arena. After the matches for the day have concluded, Dunan holds a (presumably memorized) speech before taking an initiative that's meant as a show of generosity; an invitation to the royal banquet at the castle for the winners of the competition. The winners of the competition turn out to be Estelle, Joshua, Olivier and Zane and after the final match, Dunan personally extends Zane his congratulations and the invitation after marvelling at Zane's unusual height for a moment. Later that evening, Dunan is present at the banquet, together with the country's mayors, the bracers and Colonel Richard. Having the time of his life, Dunan cheerfully talks with the guests until Richard reminds him it's time for an announcement. While it's the duke who claims to make the announcement, it's actually Richard doing the actual explaining of the queen's upcoming abdication in favor of the duke and deflecting of the skeptical reactions, with Dunan himself unable to come up with answers to the wary reactions from the guests. After the banquet, Dunan has a brief meeting with Colonel Richard before retiring to the lounge. Just when a disguised Estelle and Joshua return from their meeting with Queen Alicia, a drunk Dunan decides to return to his quarters and briefly runs into them, though without recognizing them. He briefly flirts with Estelle before being politely told to back off by Hilda and returning to his room. Phillip assures the bracers and the head maid that the duke most likely won't remember a thing in the morning. Dunan is still in the castle when the bracers and the Royal Guard launch an attack to free the queen and when Estelle, Kloe and Scherazard burst into the Royal Keep, he confronts the three of them together with three special ops guards at his side. In a last attempt to avoid a confrontation, Kloe pleads with Dunan (who doesn't recognize her as his niece at first) to stand down and realize that he's being used, but the duke merely retorts with a mysoginistic remark and Estelle and her companions promptly attack. After his bodyguards get dispatched and Estelle and Schera turn their attention to him, the duke panics and in his rush to get away, he clumsily knocks himself out cold by running into the nearby staircase railing. Kloe reassures the distressed Phillip that they have no intention of harming the duke and tells him to take his master to her room to seek shelter. After the Intelligence Division's coup d'etat gets thwarted, Queen Alicia retakes the throne and the conspiracy is reported in the papers for all citizens to see. With his hopes of succeeding the queen permanently dashed and the realisation that he was a puppet for Colonel Richard dawning on him, Dunan decides not to attend the Birthday Celebration festivities, secluding himself in the Erbe Royal Villa instead to think about his actions and the reproach the Queen presumably gave him. While Dunan is a member of the very popular Von Auslese family, he's somewhat of an outlier, having neither the wisdom and political savvy of his aunt Alicia nor the grace and humility of his niece Klaudia. His butler Phillip, who raised Dunan since he was a child, claims he spoiled him too much and the duke is, despite being a 35-year old grown man now, still a spoiled child in many ways. While he's not outright malicious, and even able of being relatively friendly during his best moments, as well as generous, as shown by his sizable contribution to the collection for the orphanage's restoration, he's nevertheless possessed of a large number of character flaws that make him extremely unpleasant to be around for just about everyone he meets. Dunan is vain, pompous, lecherous and extremely self-centered, being concerned only with his own wants and needs to the exclusion of everything and everyone else. In addition to talking down to everyone he meets, he also has the habit of using his title to justify people catering to his every whim, no matter how extreme and when set on something he never backs down, often leaving his butler Phillip to persuade others to just humor his master. Mayor Maybelle mentions she still remembers a visit the duke made to the town of Bose where he caused so much trouble that she received a ton of complaints about his behavior and even in Grancel there isn't a single person who respects him. Despite his over-inflated opinion of himself, Dunan is extremely naïve and easily manipulated by others. Mayor Dalmore comes very close to talking him into financing a large mansion on the Ruanian coast with nothing but sweet words and some wine and even Estelle manages to manipulate him into leaving the Air-Letten checkpoint by using his character flaws against him. The one who took most advantage of Dunan's naïvete was Colonel Richard, however. After the Queen proclaimed her granddaughter as her successor, Richard passed this information to the duke and was able to use the duke's anger about being passed over to his advantage by convincing Dunan to lend his support to a coup d'etat, giving the operation an air of legitimacy that it would lack without the active support of a member of the royal family. It's not until the coup is thwarted that Dunan realizes he was being used. Relations Duke Dunan is the nephew of Queen Alicia and the uncle of Klaudia von Auslese. He's also the ward and master of Phillip. Combat Category:Elite Enemies Category:Grancel Enemies Category:NPCs Category:NPCs (Ruan) Category:NPCs (Air-Letten) Category:NPCs (Jenis Royal Academy) Category:NPCs (Grancel) Category:NPCs (Chapter 2 FC) Category:NPCs (Chapter 4 FC)